The devil's Cathedral

What happened last night

•••

The door opened and Rev.fr.Vincent walked in, the mood in the house was desolate, everyone was quiet and seated. It seemed as if they had lost someone. The woman that came to get him from the office stepped in just after him. Mr.Ademola, a middle aged young man in his late forties was on his seat and on the other side was the doctor, Dr.williams, a white doctor practicing in badagry with his nurse beside him going through a file. This was the observations of the priest who was then welcomed by the master of the house Mr. Ademola in a rather undelightful way as he told him he doesn't understand what's happening to his daughter. The priest felt sorry for the couple but told them he wished he understood it so he could explain to them. He turned to the doctor and asked how Celesta was doing, the doctor said she sustained many injuries and they were mostly grade A fractures. The priest asked him for Celesta's file and it was given to him immediately by the the nurse. He opened it and headed towards the dining as everyone followed him except the nurse who went to look after the injured girl. He went through the file and when he was done he handed it to the doctor saying " she must be in pain". The doctor collected the file while responding to the priest saying "She ruptured her skull, broke the neck bone, had a dislocation on her arms and shoulder and finally broke a leg plus all the bruises that came with it all, thank God nothing got to her spine, she's lucky to still be alive". The mother ( the woman that called fr. Vincent) began to sob saying she can't take all of that. The priest then asked the doctor about the test he told him to conduct earlier on the girl and the Dr. Said he did it and she was fine, he said " anything that might be troubling her wasn't natural". He said the cause of whatever the girl was experiencing wasn't medical and therefore beyond his expertise. Fr. Vincent told them the cause is paranormal and Celesta needs to be exorcised but Mr.Ademola cut him short in anger saying this was what he said the last time he came, "If that's what she needs then perform the damn exorcism already!" He shouted. "It's not that simple, I didn't get the authorisation to conduct the exorcism" the priest replied. "Even if I got the authorisation, it's a win or lose situation because exorcism isn't as sweet and simple as it sounds, it's dangerous for both the possessed and the exorcist and even people nearby" he added. The priest then told them he can still perform the exorcism if they want, on grounds that it be kept secret. Mr. Ademola told him go on and conduct it. He told them he would need every detail about what has been happening. The couple narrated what happened that night from their own point of view. Mr.Ademola said when he saw his daughter jump off the window he rushed outside and found her unconscious in the pool of her own blood, so he picked her up into the house and made for the doctor as his wife stopped the bleeding. They told the priest everything they knew, but as they were talking the nurse rushed in and announced that Celesta was awake so they all rushed out to the room where she lay with Mrs Ademola taking the lead.

•••

As the mom got to the room with speed, she pushed the door open and when she stormed inside, she made a pause as she looked at her daughter. She was wrapped up with bandages that was already stained by blood. She rushed to Celesta as others arrived, her emotions took over and she starts to cry cause she was filled with joy to see her daughter up and smiling at her. She tried to hug her but stopped midair as it dawned on her it will cause Celesta pain. She just held her hand and rubbed her face passionately. The dad and the doctor enters next, the man held his daughters hand and told her she'll be alright, then they made way for the doctor to check her vitals. The priest just stood at the door watching them and allowing them to enjoy the moment; the doctor declared she is okay and that her vitals were back to normal, he said "she just needs rest" but the priest said "the devil does not rest" and walked in with gentle charisma asking them to give him and the girl space to chat privately. Mr Ademola took up his wife to go, when they left, the Dr came to the priest and asked "are you sure about this?" But he told him "am about to find out". The doctor then walked out of the room with his nurse. Father Vincent stood there watching Celesta as she too was watching him with the both wondering what was next. He walked up to her and sat down, after sometime he he asked her how she was feeling but she said she doesn't know, that she feels no pain at all. The priest was surprised at what she said, 'with all these injuries?' He thought but he continued regardless. He wanted to know what happened the previous night. Celeste began to cry as she tried to talk so fr. Vincent consoled her telling her she'll be fine, he said he will do whatever he can to help her but for now he needs to know exactly what happened to her because he can not help her if he does not know what her problem was. Amidst her cry she told the priest the only thing she remembered was a dead hand that wore a Bishops ring strangled her till she passed out. The priest was confused at the whole 'Bishop thing' he was hearing. Celesta said she feels no physical pain but within her it feels like she is in a fight with some forces that are winning her and it was so painful. She dropped her head after saying this and father Vincent got scared, he didn't want to touch her cause he didn't want to confirm what his mind was thinking just happened. He looked on for awhile and reflected on everything and then stood up. He went to the door and called the doctor and everyone rushed in with questioning faces "what has happened" they thought. The priest asked the doctor to check her again. Dr. Williams checked her pulse rate and heartbeat and it was fine, he also checked other vitals and confirmed she was okay but just asleep. "No she's not" the priest said, "falling into a lethargy suddenly isn't normal" he added. He turned to the parents and demanded to see Celesta's room.

•••

The door to Celesta's room was still locked with the tools Mr. Ademola tried opening them with still on the floor there in front of the door. Mr. Ademola told the priest that it was locked from the inside and he has not been able to open it. Fr Vincent picks up the mallet on the floor, blessed it and with great effort he hit the door knob and the nails fell off. The door slided open unhurriedly making this weird sound but then stopped halfway. A strong stench uzzed out of the room and the buzzing of flies could be heard. The priest instructs them not to enter, then covered his nose and stepped in majestically closing the door behind him. The buzzing and buzzing came from under the bed so it caught his attention first. He started to walk carefully towards the bed but observed the duvet was on the floor. Picking it up he checked it and found nothing tho he noticed the scattered bed and the stains on the white bedspread from the dirty legs of Celesta which showed she was kicking. He continued moving close to the bed with every step he took closer to it increased the buzzing and uzzing. Be fore he got to it he felt an aura, a presence in the room and this made him hold out his rosary beads from his pocket. When he got to the bed he knelt down slowly beside it and with his hands on his nose bent down to investigate what lurked under but his eyes met dread. The flies jumped off the bodies of the dead swollen rats and he raised his face immediately. He was shocked at to the number of rats that clustered there dead. There were piles of them. He bent over again and saw that all the rats were swollen and open at one part of their body letting organs gush out. One of the rats burst open from the eyes. The priest saw blood spilt everywhere under the bed and also staining the white bedspread but what caught his attention was that the blood flowed out from under the bed and at where it stopped, footprints of blood continued in a straight pattern staining the floor. He stood up as his eyes followed the prints then his body. It went straight and made a sharp turn on getting to the window forming an L. The priest reasoned that a normal person won't walk like that perfectly or else being controlled by something. He followed the footprints to the window and the last of it was on the window pavement. It was surely Celesta's footprints he thought. He reasoned that she said the last thing she remembers was being strangled before she passed out so she probably lost control of her body when she passed out. He remembered something and started moving out of the room. When he got to the door he turned around and took one last look at the room before leaving. When he came out, he told the couple that he needs to find someone.